


Underneath Your Skin

by crescentmoon223



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Angst, Body Swap, Episode: s06e04-05 Dreamland, F/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:47:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25843831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crescentmoon223/pseuds/crescentmoon223
Summary: What if it was Mulder and Scully who switched bodies in Dreamland? It’s awkward and embarrassing dealing with the realities of being inside each other’s skin, but ultimately these uncomfortable explorations bring them closer together.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 58
Kudos: 214





	1. Chapter 1

The craft blazed overhead, roaring past Scully and Mulder where they stood on Highway 375 outside Area 51, surrounded by gun-wielding soldiers and unidentified government agents in dark suits. There was a blinding flash of light, and the air around them seemed to ripple. Scully felt the strangest sensation, like everything inside her had somehow shifted. Her body seemed stiff, and even her clothes felt strange.

Alarmed, she glanced at Mulder to see if he’d felt it too, but the person standing beside her was…herself. A startled yelp escaped her throat, but it sounded low and masculine. The Scully beside her looked equally startled, eyes wide and nostrils flaring. She was wearing Scully’s same outfit. Was she having some sort of out of body experience?

That bright light…oh God, had she _died_?

The cold wash of fear that crawled over her skin suggested otherwise. Her hands went to her face, finding prickly stubble and unfamiliar angles. At the same time she looked down to see a man’s jeans over unnaturally long legs, and seriously, what the fuck was happening?

“You’re me,” the Scully beside her whispered.

“What?” she asked stupidly, but it was Mulder’s voice that came out of her mouth. She slapped a hand over it in horror, realizing as she did so that she was feeling his face, his mouth, that pouty bottom lip she’d fantasized about so many times…

“You two okay?” one of the men in suits asked, giving them an impatient look.

She just stared, speechless, as all the unfamiliar sensations in her body came into focus. She was looking at the world from an unfamiliar vantage point, about a foot taller than she ought to be. In fact, she was looking _down_ at the Scully doppelganger beside her. She felt oddly large, oddly strong, and there was an unfamiliar presence between her thighs that oh _God_ , was that a…a penis? Was it _Mulder’s_ penis?

This was ludicrous. It wasn’t scientifically possible to swap bodies. She was having some sort of hallucination. This must be a dream. Maybe she was unconscious. Or there was still the possibility that she was dead…

“Get in the car, Scully,” the Scully beside her muttered, turning to walk somewhat awkwardly back to their rented vehicle, ankles wobbling in her heels.

Scully followed, sliding into the driver’s seat, even though she hadn’t driven here. Mulder had. And yet the seat was adjusted perfectly for her. She grabbed the rearview mirror and tipped it toward herself. Mulder’s face stared back.

“Jesus!” she said in Mulder’s voice.

“We swapped bodies,” he said beside her, looking and sounding like her, except for the note of excitement in his voice that was pure Mulder. “Scully, do you realize how incredible this is? That craft must have caused a ripple in the space time continuum or something. I don’t know, but _look at us_!”

Oh, she’d looked, and now that the initial shock was beginning to wear off, fear began to bubble up in its place, constricting her chest. How were they going to get back into their own bodies? She could _not_ go through the rest of her life as Mulder.

In front of their car, the row of soldiers closed in threateningly, guns raised. Instinctively, she shifted the car into reverse and pressed the gas. The vehicle lurched backward. She cranked the wheel, performing an awkward three point turn on the narrow road, and then burned rubber into the long, dark expanse of road ahead.

“What now?” she asked, gripping the steering wheel with Mulder’s big, strong hands.

“I don’t know,” he answered.

She gave her head a slight shake. Perhaps even weirder than seeing herself in Mulder’s body was to see her own body in the passenger seat beside her, legs spread like, well, like a man, fingers playing with her lower lip in a way that was uniquely Mulder.

This was so fucked up.

“I should call the gunmen. They might know what to do,” he said.

“Okay,” she agreed, relieved to have a plan, however tenuous. “We passed through a town about a half hour back. Hopefully we can find a hotel there for the night.” Instinct said they should stay close to the scene of the crime, so to speak, in case they needed to be there to swap back.

Mulder shifted in his seat beside her. “Scully, this is kind of awkward, but you—or I guess _I_ —really need to pee.”

Her cheeks warmed in secondhand embarrassment. “Yeah, well, what do you expect? We’ve been driving for hours.”

“You should have said something.”

“There wasn’t anywhere to stop.” And honestly, she’d gotten used to holding her bladder without complaint during med school rotations. Being a woman already put her at a disadvantage in her chosen field of work, so whenever possible, she kept her physical discomforts to herself.

“Well, we’d better find somewhere soon,” he said, one knee beginning to bounce.

“You can hold it until we find a motel,” she told him. “It’s what I would have done.”

“Fine.”

Her lips quirked at his obvious discomfort, but it was weird looking at herself in the passenger seat, hearing her own voice come from his mouth. Everything about this was weird. And uncomfortable. If she turned this car around and drove back to the spot where it happened, would they somehow swap back?

She couldn’t risk it, not right now, not when it was still swarming with hostile agents. They drove in silence for the next thirty minutes or so, while Mulder fidgeted in the seat beside her, but he didn’t complain, and she was still too embarrassed by the whole thing to rib him about it.

Finally, they entered a town called Silver Springs, a little blip on the map, but it had a motel with a lit vacancy sign. She turned into the parking lot. At least it didn’t look as rundown as some of the places they’d stayed. The night air was cool and crisp as she stood from the car, straightening these ridiculously long legs that weren’t hers. Mulder stood from the passenger seat, wobbling in her heels as he rounded the car.

They walked inside together and requested adjoining rooms, the way they’d done a hundred other times, but tonight, everything was strange. Even her emotions were off. Her irritation with the situation made her want to punch something. Was this what it felt like to be a testosterone-driven man?

Finally, they were on their way to their rooms, which were on the second floor. She hoisted Mulder’s duffel bag out of the trunk while he picked up hers. It felt weird to have his stuff, but what good would it do to have her own? She needed his clothes, his toiletries. And he needed hers. Including the more embarrassing items tucked away in the depths of her duffel bag.

_Fuck me._

When she reached her room, she muttered a quick goodbye and stepped side, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

Mulder stood in the little bathroom in his motel room, hands on the waistband of his pants, torn between the urge to yank them down before his bladder exploded and an odd sense of embarrassment over what he was going to see when he did. He was in Scully’s body, but as many times as he’d fantasized about seeing her naked, this wasn’t how he wanted it to happen.

On the contrary, he felt intensely uncomfortable about pulling down her pants, even if it meant relief because, damn, he really did need to pee. He stood there for another minute, staring at himself in the mirror, marveling at Scully’s face looking back at him. This was amazing. It was one of the most incredible things that had happened to them, because if they could somehow prove this, document it…well, she was the scientist, but this had to be a medical milestone.

It was also awkward, because he felt like an intruder in her body. Maybe if he’d body swapped with a stranger, he would have felt comfortable exploring. But this was Scully, the woman he admired more than anyone else in the world, his best friend, his partner, the woman he was definitely in love with, at least on some level that wasn’t strictly platonic.

He was attracted to her, and he knew she felt it too. There had been a million little moments between them over the years where they could have taken things farther, so many near misses and near kisses. He’d always assumed it would happen when the timing was right. But right now, being trapped inside the body of the woman he loved but had never kissed, felt almost creepy.

Fuck it. He needed to talk this through with her.

Sparing a longing glance at the unused toilet, he went through the bedroom and knocked on the adjoining door. She opened it almost immediately, still dressed exactly as he’d left her.

“Feel better?” she asked with a little smirk that was all Scully.

“No,” he said. “I didn’t…I can’t…Scully, I feel weird about seeing you naked.”

Her eyes widened. “I…well…it’s just a body, Mulder.”

“I know, but…”

“Who knows how long we’re going to be stuck like this? We’re going to have to use the bathroom, shower, all kinds of things.” She said it in her most practical tone, so that even with his voice leaving her mouth, it sounded like _her_. But he also heard the stiffness in her words. She felt weird about this too.

“Maybe we should just strip,” he suggested.

She quirked an eyebrow in that unmistakably Scully way. It looked so foreign on his face. “What?”

“Right here. Let’s both just strip and get it over with. I’ll see you. You’ll see me. Bada-bing. Mystery solved.” He flung his arms out and gave his hips a little shake, which felt really strange in her body.

“I think you should just go in the bathroom and pee,” she said, arms crossed over her chest. “Stop making such a big deal about it.”

“Come on, Scully. You aren’t the least bit weirded out about seeing my body under those clothes?”

That dramatic sigh said she was. “Okay, maybe a little.”

“So let’s just do it, then.” He slipped her black jacket over his shoulders and tossed it on the bed.

She huffed. “Fine.”

“Your turn.” He gestured toward her clothes.

She shuffled her feet, kicking his sneakers toward the bed. This might take all night at this rate, and his bladder didn’t have that much time. He looked down, still somewhat disoriented to see the swell of her breasts there. And well, it was either going to be her shirt or her pants next, so he started with the shirt, tugging it over his head and tossing it on the bed. There were her breasts, contained beneath a flesh-toned satin bra.

In any other situation, he’d be dying to touch them, but tonight, his arms hung awkwardly at his sides as he waited for her to make the next move. She kept her eyes averted from him as she removed his T-shirt. Now they were both standing there in their pants, well, and her bra.

He reached down and fumbled with the clasp on her pants. Why were women’s clothes so complicated? What was wrong with a simple button? Just when he thought he might need to ask for help, it sprang free. He pushed down the zipper and stepped out of the black pants, tossing them to the bed. Did he dare look?

Before he’d had a chance to decide, she shucked his jeans, standing there in his black boxer briefs, and at least there wasn’t a bulge in the front, or at least, not any more of a bulge than necessary. This wasn’t turning her on. It wasn’t turning him on either. On the contrary, he felt more and more awkward the more clothes they removed.

“Just do it already,” she said, exasperated.

He reached behind himself, again fumbling clumsily as he tried to unfasten the bra. It had been an embarrassingly long time since he’d taken off a woman’s bra, and he’d certainly never done it from this angle before. Finally, it sprang free, and the bra slid from his shoulders. He tossed it aside, his gaze dropping briefly to the breasts he’d exposed. Her perfect, round breasts, or in this moment…his. He looked away.

“It’s okay, Mulder,” she said quietly. “You can look.”

“It feels disrespectful.”

She stepped forward, resting a hand on his shoulder. “It only feels that way because you _are_ respectful. Of all the men who’ve ogled my body over the years, who’ve said things that made me uncomfortable or touched me inappropriately, none of them were you.”

“Oh,” he said, swallowing hard. “Has it been a lot of men?” It had. He knew it had. He’d seen it happen enough times. Had he spoken up for her? Had he done enough to stop it?

“Even one is too many,” she answered simply. “But you’ve never made me feel that way, and now we’re stuck in this ridiculous situation. There’s no way to avoid seeing the bodies we’re trapped in, so just look so we can move on and start figuring out how to get out of this mess.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, “about all the other men, the ones who were inappropriate.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “I chose a male dominated field. I knew what I was in for.”

That didn’t make it right. He slid the black underwear down his legs, glad they weren’t overtly sexy or anything that would embarrass her. These were simple black cotton, and he tossed them to the bed. She did the same with the boxer briefs, and then they stood facing each other, naked.

But he didn’t want to look at her, because he knew what he looked like naked. Instead, he finally let his gaze drift downward, past those round breasts with their rosy pink nipples, to the neatly trimmed patch of red hair between his thighs. He looked up to find her shamelessly ogling his cock, looking at it as if she perhaps wanted to take it in her hands and see what it felt like.

“Knock yourself out,” he said, gesturing toward it, and then he turned and dashed for the bathroom. He shut the door behind himself, remembering at the last moment that he needed to sit for this.

A minute later—and feeling _much_ better—he washed his hands. He was still naked, and his torso was visible in the mirror. He resisted the juvenile urge to bounce his breasts in the reflection. Instead, reached for the duffel bag he’d dropped outside the bathroom, rummaging around until he came up with a pair of Scully’s signature silk pajamas. He put them on and went back through the room to the adjoining door, which stood ajar.

He pushed it open to find her on the bed, redressed in the clothes she’d stripped out of for him, tapping at his laptop.

“Scully, it’s three a.m. I think we should get a few hours of sleep and start fresh in the morning, don’t you?”

She sighed, shutting the laptop and rubbing her eyes. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Okay, well, goodnight.”

“Night, Mulder.”

Exhaustion had set in fast now that he was no longer preoccupied with physical discomforts. He had no idea what Scully’s bedtime ritual was—beyond a few ill-timed glimpses of her with various creams smeared on her face—so he brushed his teeth and fell into bed, hoping her propensity to drop straight to sleep would have stayed with her body.

No such luck. He tossed between the threadbare motel sheets, unable to get comfortable. As he readjusted the covers over himself, he felt an unfamiliar tingle in his breasts. Wow, Scully’s nipples were really sensitive. He rubbed the sheet back and forth across his chest, mesmerized by the sensation.

That tingle he’d felt soon spread through his belly, gathering in a warm ache between his thighs, and oh _fuck_. Nope. He wasn’t doing this. He wasn’t going to touch Scully, not even if he _was_ Scully right now. He’d never felt anything like this before, though. He felt…wet. _Whoa_.

Unable to resist, he arched his hips, pressing himself against the mattress. He wasn’t going to look or to touch or even to get himself off, but he was hopelessly curious by nature, and he just had to know what arousal felt like for a woman.

He grabbed the pillow he’d tossed aside, pressing it between his thighs and moving himself against it. Almost immediately the ache inside him intensified, beginning to throb in time with his pulse. It was more focused than anything he’d felt in his own body, all centered in that one spot that he absolutely wasn’t going to touch.

Reluctantly, he tossed the pillow aside and lay on his back with one arm thrown across his eyes, waiting for the arousal to fade. It took longer than he’d expected, so he distracted himself by imagining how his phone call with the Lone Gunmen tomorrow might go. They were going to have a field day with this body swap business.

Eventually, his eyes started to droop, and he drifted into a restless sleep. He was awakened sometime later by a groan from the adjoining room.


	2. Chapter 2

She stared, horrified, at the tent in the sheets at her waist. There was a heaviness there, an ache that let her know exactly what she’d find if she pulled back the sheet. Instinctively, she knew exactly how to satisfy it too. Her fingers itched to reach down and grip herself, to squeeze and stroke until she’d brought herself to climax.

This was basic male physiology, after all. Nocturnal penile tumescence—or morning wood, as Mulder would probably call it—was common. It was natural. And it would go away if she ignored it.

She closed her eyes, suppressing a groan, hands fisted in the sheets. Her bladder was also uncomfortably full, but she probably couldn’t empty it until the erection was gone, and well…none of this was at all what she’d imagined, if she’d ever taken the time to think about what it might be like to switch bodies with someone. She certainly wouldn’t have anticipated there being such an emphasis on basic bodily functions.

There was a knock on the adjoining door.

She sat up, cheeks flaming, glancing desperately around the room for her clothes. His clothes. Whatever. She’d slept in his boxer briefs, but they were doing little to hide what was going on inside them.

“Hey Scully?” he called in her voice, tapping at the door again.

“Yeah,” she said, her voice low and rough. She might not ever get used to Mulder’s voice coming from her throat. Or having an erection. _Jesus Christ_. She rubbed a hand over her chin, wincing at the prick of day old stubble there.

“It, uh, happens every morning,” he said through the door, sounding somewhat apologetic.

 _Oh God_. The burning sensation in her cheeks intensified. And then she scowled. Why was she embarrassed? This was _his_ body. He was the one waking up every morning with a boner, not her.

“You can take care of it, if you want,” he said. “Or ignore it. It’ll go down in a few minutes…or, well…”

“Well, what?” she demanded, her voice coming out more harshly than she’d intended.

“It’s been a few days since I…took care of it,” he said. “So things might be a little more urgent than usual.”

“Jesus, Mulder.” She squeezed her eyes shut, still refusing to move the sheet resting over her waist.

“You could try thinking about your mother,” he suggested. “Or imagine Skinner’s about to walk in on you. That’s saved my ass at the office more than once.”

“How often do you get erections at work?” she asked, half curious, half horrified.

“Uh, I’m a guy who hasn’t been laid in…well, a while. It happens more often than you might think.”

“Keep talking,” she said, because it seemed to be helping. The pressure in her groin was easing, the ache becoming less intense. _Urgent,_ he’d said, and that was a pretty accurate descriptor for the sensation she was feeling.

“Scully, you’re hurting my feelings here,” he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. “Insinuating that talking to me is turning you off.”

“The sound of my own voice isn’t doing anything for me,” she told him dryly. “Sorry.”

“No, I…I understand,” he said. “I feel the same way. It’s weird, because…”

“Because what?” she asked, perhaps emboldened by the closed door between them, or maybe it was the actual set of balls between her thighs or the massive erection still straining the front of her boxers.

“Because usually, you know…” he drifted off.

“Usually what?” she demanded. If they didn’t say it now, when would they ever? Or maybe that was just the testosterone talking.

“I find you attractive, Scully, okay? When I’m not inside your body, that is.”

 _Oh_. “So do I,” she blurted. “Find you attractive, that is.”

“I thought so,” he said, sounding smug.

“Anyway,” she said, suddenly eager to change the topic of conversation.

“Anyway,” he repeated.

“Um, I’ll be out in a minute.” She finally pushed back the sheet and stood, relieved that things were mostly back to normal inside her boxers. She went into the bathroom and used the toilet before stepping into a quick shower, because men had a tendency to stink, and since she was one now, she could at least bring a woman’s sense of hygiene to the job.

After her shower, she shaved, finding it not that different on her face than her legs. Then she went into the bedroom, where she looked through Mulder’s duffel bag to find clean clothes. As men went, he was a rather clean one, and she was able to find everything she needed without trouble. She looked down at her naked body, momentarily overcome by curiosity. Or maybe it was just the lingering ache from the erection she hadn’t taken care of for him earlier.

She gripped the cock in her right hand, just wanting to know what it felt like from a man’s perspective. The answer was…her eyes rolled back in her head, and it was all she could do to stifle the moan that had risen in her throat. The cock immediately hardened beneath her fingers, and the urge to keep going was almost overpowering.

No wonder men were always thinking about sex. She’d been one for twelve hours, and she already had a one-track mind. But she wasn’t going to masturbate as Mulder. That was just inappropriate. So she dressed quickly in the jeans and tee she’d pulled from his bag and knocked on their adjoining door.

“You decent over there?” she called.

“Yeah,” he answered, sounding a bit strange, and she hoped he didn’t somehow know what she had been doing in here.

She pushed the door open to find him standing there, dressed almost as neatly as she would have dressed herself, although he was wearing her flats, instead of the heels she’d worn yesterday. He held up the tampon that had been in the side pocket of her toiletry case. “Do I, uh, do I need to worry about this?”

“No,” she answered quickly. Ordinarily, she wasn’t a prude about this stuff, but it was disconcerting when they were in each other’s bodies. The thought of him inserting a tampon…having her period…too fucking weird. She couldn’t go there. Not yet. “That’s just my backup. You should be fine for a few weeks, at least.”

He let out a relieved breath. “Hopefully, we’ll be back long before then.”

“Yes. So do you have a plan for that? Getting back?”

“I talked to the gunmen this morning, and boy did they have a good laugh about this.” He shook his head with a grin, running a hand through his hair—her hair—which by the looks of it, he hadn’t washed. Yesterday’s mascara was smudged beneath his eyes. _Men_.

“And?”

“They ran some data, and there’s no way to be sure, but they think our best bet is to be in the same place tonight and hope this thing snaps back. Maybe that craft will pass over again…”

“Sounds like a long shot.”

“You got a better idea?” he asked.

She shook her head. For once, she didn’t have a clue.

“What do you say we head on over there early and poke around? See what we see, maybe cause a little trouble in the meantime.”

“It can’t hurt,” she agreed.

“Let’s go.” He turned as if to head toward the door.

“Mulder, wait,” she called, stepping through the doorway into his room. “First, you’d better let me do your makeup.”

* * *

Well, _that_ had been an ordeal. He’d sat on the closed toilet seat while she washed his face and rubbed it with various creams before smearing him with makeup. The amount of stuff she’d put on his eyes! They felt heavy and uncomfortable, and he found himself automatically reaching up to rub at them.

“No touching your eyes,” she warned, pointing a finger in his direction. “You’ll smudge your mascara.”

“Oh,” he said, letting his hand drop to his lap. Also, the bra was digging uncomfortably into his ribcage. Either he’d fastened it wrong, or Scully was more stoic than he’d realized. Actually, whether he’d put it on wrong or not, she was definitely tougher than nails. There was a whole lot of shit that went into being a woman that he hadn’t fully appreciated before, and he hadn’t even had to deal with half of it yet.

He hoped he didn’t have to figure out how to use that tampon, because he had a feeling he’d screw it up, and he didn’t want to cause either of them any embarrassment in the process. It was the strangest feeling, being tasked with taking care of this body, the body of the woman who meant the entire world to him. He meant to do a good job of it, and once he was himself again, he hoped he might get the chance to care for this body in a different way.

But in the meantime, they needed to focus on switching themselves back. After a quick stop at the coffee shop down the street for caffeine and bagels, they were on their way to Area 51. At least she’d packed pants for this trip. He was extremely thankful he hadn’t had to figure out how to maneuver a skirt and those pantyhose she always wore to cover her bare legs.

He’d had to scoot the driver’s seat all the way forward, but he’d insisted on driving this morning. Old habits died hard.

“Uh oh,” she muttered from the passenger seat.

Out of nowhere, the road filled with nondescript government vehicles, surrounding their car, not unlike what had happened to them last night. He stopped the car and stepped out, aware peripherally of Scully standing from the passenger side. The soldiers and agents pressed forward in the same unfriendly wall, but it felt different today, somehow.

For one, he was having to look up at them to make eye contact. And then there was the fact that most of the men weren’t looking at him at all. They were looking at Scully, addressing her instead of him. She pulled herself up tall in his body, leveling them with that killer stare that she did so well. And then she started spouting off about sonic booms and abnormal brain activity, neurons and synapses and the connection between mind and body.

And they listened. Well, they listened more than they’d listened to him last night when he’d started talking about UFO’s, more than he’d seen many agents listen to her in the past. It seemed that a man spouting science was a winning combination, and the next thing he knew, they were being herded into one of the government vehicles and brought inside Area 51.

They spent the rest of the day being poked and prodded by various doctors and scientists, subjected to brain scans and more tests than he knew the names of while a seemingly endless parade of men in dark suits asked them questions. None of them took Mulder seriously. They teased him about his breasts and cracked jokes about aliens. But Scully…they hung on every word that came out of her mouth. She had their full attention, their interest, and their respect.

He’d been dismissed for his beliefs before, but this was different. Gender roles were at play today, and they both knew it. He saw Scully darting harried glances at him while she helped the neurologist interpret the results of their brain scans.

It was dark outside by the time they left the building, escorted back to that fateful spot on the road where they hoped to make things right. They stood together on the moonlit pavement, watching as the craft approached overhead. Like last night, there was a flash of light, a boom of sound, and the air around them took on that shimmering quality.

With a jolt, he blinked, glancing at Scully beside him. And it was her. In her own body, blinking back at him out of wide blue eyes as her pink lips dropped open in a gasp.

“It’s you,” she whispered.

“Yeah, I’m me,” he confirmed, patting his chest just to be sure. “Are you…?”

“I’m me,” she confirmed, reaching up to touch her hair.

“Nothing to see here,” one of the Area 51 agents called. “It’s time for you to leave, agents.”

He swung around to stare. “That so?”

“This is private property, Agent Mulder. You have no jurisdiction here.”

Ah, so that’s how it was going to be. These men had tested on them all day, documenting what had happened to them, and now that they’d been returned to their own bodies, they were being sent off into the night with no evidence. No proof. Anyone would think they were insane if they attempted to explain any of this.

“Come on, Mulder,” Scully said quietly, her fingers closing over his wrist.

He swallowed his indignation, because of course they hadn’t gotten the proof they needed. They never did. But at least they’d gotten back into their own bodies. After the confusion, frustration, and embarrassment of the last twenty-four hours, that was no small feat.

He dropped into the driver’s seat, grimacing as his knees hit the steering wheel. Scully rolled her eyes at him as he scooted the seat back to accommodate his legs.

“You could have just let me drive, you know,” she said.

“Did…did you want to?” he asked, hoping he hadn’t dismissed her the way those men dismissed him while he was occupying her body.

“It’s fine. Let’s just get out of here.” Her voice was tight, eyes still locked on the soldiers with guns in front of their car.

And she had a good point. He swung the car around and got the hell out of there.

Thirty minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of their motel. Scully was out of her seat almost before he’d shut off the engine, striding briskly toward the stairs leading up to their rooms.

“Hey, Scully, wait.” He felt like they should talk about this, although he had no idea what to say.

“I’m tired. Goodnight, Mulder.”

“Uh, I don’t know about you, but I’m starved after being tested on all day. Want to order a pizza before you crash?”

She paused, then nodded with a sigh. “Yeah, okay.”

“There’s a place down the street.” He gestured in the direction they’d just come from.

She started climbing the stairs. “Knock on my door when you get back.”

“’Kay.”

He stood there for a moment, staring after her as she disappeared into her room. He knew Scully, and she was upset. Definitely upset. But why? And how did he fix it?


	3. Chapter 3

She stepped into the shower, needing a moment alone to anchor herself in her own skin and hopefully rinse away this unwanted flood of emotion. Her hands roamed her body as if to reassure herself that she was actually _her_. Over the years, she’d harbored various insecurities and annoyances with her body. She was too petite, too damn small to be taken seriously. Her size often put her at a disadvantage when she had to defend herself from one of the monsters or psychopaths they routinely encountered.

Despite early mornings spent at the gym, her belly was soft, her hips curvier than she might have preferred. She hadn’t always loved her red hair. It drew attention to her looks, when she wanted to be noticed for her mind.

But right now, as she slid her fingers through that hair and ran them over her curves, tears overflowed her eyes with gratitude to be herself. She would never criticize her appearance or take anything about her body for granted again. She was strong despite her size, dammit, and she was a better shot than Mulder. Sometimes, her small stature even came in handy in the field.

People had treated her differently when she was inside Mulder’s body. The other agents and the medical personnel inside Area 51 had taken her seriously. They’d listened to her. And she’d _hated_ it. She didn’t want respect that came from the dick in her pants.

She wanted respect as a woman, and she wouldn’t settle for anything less.

She scrubbed herself clean, dried her tears, and stepped out of the shower. Knowing Mulder was clueless about women’s beauty rituals, she spent extra time applying lotion to her body and the special moisturizing cream she used on her face every night. He’d been sweet, though, so determined not to take advantage of her. If it had been possible, she honestly thought he would have gone the full twenty-four hours without looking at her naked body.

And that knowledge spread something warm in her chest, smoothing over the rough edges of her current mood. Maybe body swapping caused hormone fluctuations, because she was a hot mess right now. Her initial reaction had been to shut him out, to hide in her room and sleep it off, but she was glad now that he’d gone to get pizza.

For one thing, she was starving, and maybe it would be good for her to be with him for a little while before she slept, to share pizza and the easy banter they were so good at. She doubted they would do more than joke about their experience. Talking had never exactly been their forte, at least not when it came to the important stuff.

She’d just put on her pajamas—the same set he’d worn last night—when she heard him knocking at the door that separated their rooms. “Come in,” she called, reassured to hear her own voice coming from her lips.

He entered with a large pizza box and a six pack of beer, looking so good in the T-shirt and jeans she’d dressed him in that morning, she actually felt her throat go dry. Then she remembered the things she’d felt when she woke in his body, that ache, the incessant need for release, his acknowledgement that he woke that way every morning, that he found her attractive…

“Hi,” she croaked.

He gave her a crooked grin, as if he knew every thought that had just spiraled through her brain, and for a moment, she feared he actually did, that maybe they were still connected somehow, but no, he was just being Mulder. He set the pizza box on the bed and the beer on the nightstand, and then he used the side of the table to pop the caps off two of them, handing one to her.

“To being ourselves again,” he said, tapping the neck of his bottle against hers.

“I’ll drink to that.” She lifted it to her lips for a grateful swallow.

He flipped open the pizza box, and they dove in. Without plates, they sat close together on the bed, both of them leaned over the box as they ate. They were quiet while they ate pizza and guzzled beer. Maybe he’d needed to decompress too. Either way, she was glad for his presence. She didn’t want to be alone tonight.

When they’d both eaten their fill, he set the box aside and kicked back on the bed beside her, beer in hand. “Hell of a day.”

“Yeah.” She looked at him, the man, the body she’d been inside of so recently. She’d felt what it was like to be him, and it left her strangely fascinated, or maybe she was just tipsy. Her gaze dropped to his crotch, that bulge at the front of his jeans. “So, every morning, huh?”

He choked on his beer, and she almost dropped hers, cheeks flaming at her complete lack of filter. _Jesus_. What had gotten into her tonight?

“Every morning,” he confirmed, watching her closely, a warmth in his eyes that went beyond friendly affection. She’d seen it before. She’d _felt_ it before. This attraction had been simmering between them for years, and then oddly, it had been missing for the twenty-four hours they inhabited each other’s bodies.

She could certainly appreciate the female form. She’d experimented with women in college and knew from that experience that she wasn’t completely straight, but she wasn’t attracted to herself, so the sight of him in her body had been off-putting in any sort of sexual sense. He’d seemed to feel the same way.

“Well, I didn’t, you know…” She made a jerking motion with her hand that caused her cheeks to burn even hotter. “So you might need to take care of that in the morning.”

“You were feeling pretty horny last night yourself, Scully,” he said, his voice dialed to pure sex.

An answering ache grew between her thighs. “Was I?”

He nodded. “I saw the accessory you packed in your bag, but I didn’t _you know_ , either.”

“You found my vibrator?” she blurted, then gulped the rest of her beer. This was her second, and it had gone straight to her head. Either that, or she was still suffering the aftereffects of body swapping, which seemed to include losing the ability to think before she spoke.

“That little pink thing in the bottom of your bag?”

“Yeah, that.” She wasn’t quite sure what happened next, but her lips were pressed against his, and she was straddling his lap, so she must have been the one who moved, because he was sitting in the same place, surprise registering in his eyes a moment before he kissed her back.

There was a loud clunk as his beer bottle hit the nightstand, but she didn’t even look to see if it had stayed upright, because his tongue was in her mouth, moving, searching, lighting her on fire from her scalp to the tips of her toes.

“Mulder,” she gasped, adjusting herself so that the bulge in his jeans pressed between her thighs, and _oh_ , that was spectacular.

“You have no idea how many times I’ve thought about this,” he murmured, his voice vibrating through her fingertips, which were pressed against his chest, proving that any part of the body could be an erogenous zone, because the sensation sent a shiver of pleasure ricocheting through her.

“Me too,” she confessed. “So many reasons to keep things professional. Good reasons.” She said the words out loud, even as her hips betrayed her, moving against his cock, which had hardened impressively beneath her.

“What do you say we take things one night at the time and see what happens?”

“I like that plan.” Maybe when they got back to DC tomorrow, they’d never mention this night again. Or maybe, if they lost the X Files forever, they’d no longer be partners, and then there would be no reason not to pursue a relationship. Tonight, she just wanted to _feel_. For once, she wanted to be reckless, to take what she wanted and to hell with the consequences.

Somehow, this seemed easier after the events of the last twenty-four hours. They’d seen each other naked now, not just an accidental glimpse while they were changing in a locker room somewhere, but they’d actually inhabited each other’s bodies. It didn’t intimidate her to reach inside the waistband of his jeans and grip him, because she’d already done that, albeit in a slightly different context.

Mulder seemed to feel the same, because he reached for her with confidence, gripping her hips and moving her against him. She’d never been more appreciative of her body than that moment, with Mulder’s cock nestled between her thighs and arousal pulsing in her core, lighting her up more powerfully than anything she’d felt in years. This was infinitely better than any of her recent encounters with the little pink vibrator he’d discovered in her bag.

So good, in fact, she was already spiraling toward release. She stilled her hips and backed onto her heels so she could unbutton her pajama top and toss it aside.

“A little different than last night’s strip tease.” He tugged his own shirt over his head.

“A lot sexier,” she said, lifting up so she could wiggle out of her pants, leaving herself in nothing but her panties. She reached forward to help him work his jeans down his legs, revealing the bulge in the front of his briefs that she’d been so afraid to touch earlier. She wasn’t afraid now.

“This time, I’m not about to pee myself,” Mulder joked.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Shut up, Mulder.”

“You have a really small bladder, Scully. Tell me when you need me to stop the car. Seriously, you shouldn’t have to suffer in silence.”

She ducked her head, somewhat uncomfortable with his newfound knowledge of her body, but it was true. She did have a tendency to suffer in silence. “I’ll try.”

“I’ll remind you.” He reached out to cup her cheek, those hazel eyes warm and tender as they gazed into hers, so intense she felt like he could see all the way to her soul. Maybe after yesterday, a part of him was already there, nestled deeply in her heart. Maybe he’d already been there. “I want you to feel comfortable with me, Scully. Always.”

“I do,” she whispered, hearing the waver in her voice.

His hand, which had been cupping her cheek, slid around to the back of her head, fingers threading through her hair as he drew her in for a kiss. His lips moved against hers, warm and soft yet demanding. All consuming. He kissed just like she knew he would, intense and passionate, like he could kiss her for hours and never get enough.

For several long, blissful minutes, she just reveled in the pleasure of his kiss, until the need throbbing in her core became too insistent to ignore. She raised up on her knees without breaking their kiss, shimmying out of her underwear before helping him to strip out of his. Then, finally naked, she settled herself on top of him again, but this time his cock rested against her bare skin, and she couldn’t help her whimper at the sensation.

“Fuck, Scully.” His voice was strained.

“Yeah,” she whispered, rocking herself against him. “Please do.”

“You’re sure?” he asked.

She nodded. She’d never been more sure of anything.

“I don’t have a condom.”

“We don’t have to worry about pregnancy, and it’s been a while for both of us, right? I’ve been tested, and I assume you have too.”

He grinned in that irresistibly Mulder way. “All clean and ready to go.”

He brought his hand between them, tracing a finger through her curls until he reached her clit, causing her hips to buck against him. “I wish I’d gotten to know what this felt like,” he said, his voice low and husky as he rubbed the pad of his finger over her.

“You didn’t?” she asked, too turned on to care if he’d explored her body while he was in it, but at the same time relieved that he hadn’t.

“Didn’t feel right,” he said. “But it feels fucking great now.”

“Mm,” she moaned. “Mulder, you’d better hurry up and get inside me before I come.”

In response, he withdrew his fingers, instead reaching up to cup her breasts. “Your breasts are so sensitive,” he said somewhat reverently.

She gasped, arching into his touch, because it was true, but… “How do you know that if you didn’t touch yourself when you were me?”

“Just from moving around in bed last night. Even the sheets rubbing against me was turning me on. I’d never felt anything like that before.”

“Oh,” she whispered, head falling back as he sucked one of her nipples into his mouth, shooting a bolt of fire straight to her clit. He lavished her breasts with attention until she couldn’t wait another moment. “Mulder, I’m not kidding. I need you inside me.”

“Not as badly as I need to be inside you,” he said gruffly. “Warning you now, I’m not gonna last long, at least not this first time.”

“Me either,” she whispered as she gripped him, lining him up with her entrance. She lowered herself slowly until his head dipped inside her, causing them both to gasp. Her body stretched to accommodate him, because _God_ , it had been a long time, and he was huge.

“Scully, you feel so good.” He flung his head back, eyes clamped shut, pulse pounding in the hollow of his throat.

She bent forward to close her lips over that spot, feeling the rhythm of his heart against her tongue as she lowered her hips, taking him all the way in. For a moment, neither of them moved. She savored the feeling of fullness and the needy throb of arousal inside her, growing steadily more insistent the longer she held herself still.

She kissed her way to his lips, claiming them as she began to move. His hands gripped her hips, urging her on as he rocked into her from below. She arched her back so that her clit rubbed against him on each stroke, and _oh,_ that was it. That was perfect.

She let out a high-pitched cry, hips moving frantically, almost overwhelmed by the energy building inside her. Her whole body seemed to throb with it, centered in the tension building in her core.

“I’m close,” Mulder said as his fingers gripped her ass, attempting to move her against him harder, faster, deeper.

“So am I, Mulder, I—” That was as far as she got before she broke. She felt her body clamp down on him as she began to come, release pulsing through her in blissful waves.

Mulder swore a blue streak as he pumped into her, and then he was coming too, filling her with delicious heat. They moved together messily, groaning and grasping as they rode out their pleasure, and then she collapsed against his chest, covered with sweat and panting for breath.

“Scully, that was…that was amazing.” One of his arms came around her shoulders, holding her close while the other moved to the back of her head, fingers threading through her hair.

She nestled her cheek against the coarse hair on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart against her ear. “It was. And after this morning, I have a vague idea of what that felt like for you.”

“Can’t believe you passed up the opportunity to jerk off,” he teased.

“And you passed on the chance to play with my tits.”

“That did take some restraint,” he admitted, “especially considering how horny you were last night. I can tell why you brought along the vibrator.”

“You’re better than the vibrator,” she whispered.

“Because I’ve been underneath your skin,” he joked.

She shook her head against his chest, peering up at him through a wayward strand of red hair. “Maybe that’s part of it, but mostly it’s you, Mulder. It’s always been you.”

Something shifted in his eyes, like a lens had been removed, allowing her to see past the aloof, teasing persona he wore so often to the man behind it, a man currently staring at her with unabashed affection. “You too, Scully. Only you.”


End file.
